NEWS HUB

Powerful images show the environmental impact of recent industrialization in Africa

By Kristine Thoreson
Galleries West

In the light-filled back room of the Paul Kuhn Gallery, I’m both transfixed and perplexed by the colours in a photograph by Edward Burtynsky. Salt Flats #2, Sua Pan, Botswana holds luscious swirls of cherry-blossom pinks and amethyst purples. It’s so mesmerizing, I barely wonder what it is.

The image, part of the Toronto photographer’s latest body of work, African Studies, is on view in Calgary until May 27. Burtynsky’s large colour prints show aerial views from across Sub-Saharan Africa shot between 2015 and 2020 using fixed-wing planes, helicopters and drones. He visited 10 countries in all – Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar and Tanzania. 

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